Mayors and top officials from more than 44 globally located cities will convene in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the fifth biennial C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group Mayors Summit to discuss their measurable action and future opportunity for action in the fight to address climate change and climate risks. The Summit will be hosted by the City of Johannesburg, from February 4-6, 2014.

The Summit is expected to release groundbreaking new information that shows the magnitude of city-level action against climate change along with new data on city-led climate change trends.

According to C40, while cities only occupy 2% of the Earth’s landmass, they contain over 50% of its population, use two‐thirds of its energy and generate over 70% of its carbon emissions. Combined, C40 cities have the potential to reduce future emissions by up to 1.3 billion tons by 2030. The C40 Mayors Summit will focus on how cities are developing and implementing innovative solutions to some of the most pressing climate and resource issues facing the world today.

With the theme ‘Towards resilient and liveable megacities – demonstrating action, impact and opportunity’, the Summit will be co-hosted by the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Councillor Mpho Parks Tau, C40 Chair and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes, and the 108th Mayor of New York City and President of C40 board, Michael R. Bloomberg. This unique event provides attendees unparalleled access to a global network of leading experts, opinion makers, and municipal representatives who have made a commitment to address climate change in a substantive, results-driven fashion. It is also a catalyst for additional action by and collaboration among cities.

“It is with great pride that I assume the Chairmanship of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and I look forward to my first official summit as Chair,” said Mayor Paes. “I am committed to building on the great work Mayor Bloomberg has already carried out and developing partnerships and initiatives to further the positive legacy that the C40 is creating in order to combat global climate change. I also relish the opportunity to present the valuable lessons that Rio de Janeiro is learning in the run up to the Olympics in 2016. With 70 per cent of the world’s population predicted to live in urban areas by 2050, we as cities are working to the tightest of deadlines in order to preserve all our futures.”

“Hosting this C40 summit is a privilege for the City of Johannesburg, South Africa, and the African continent” said Mayor Tau. “As mayors of big cities, we have a responsibility to provide leadership and to share our experiences, best practice and capacity for innovation with the rest of the globe. We take action on this front because of our shared conviction that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. In the end, we are measured not by how much we undertake, but by what we finally accomplish.”

A landmark report, Climate Action in Megacities Volume 2.0 (CAM 2.0), will be released during the Summit. Developed in partnership with Arup, this report quantifies the measurable actions taken by the world’s megacities and how they are leading the way to reduce carbon emissions and climate risks. The report illuminates a clear trend of cities evolving early, experimental actions into long-term transformative programs. The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) is a network of large and engaged cities from around the world, committed to implementing meaningful and sustainable global climate-related actions that generate measurable reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate risks.